Established in 1993, La Panetteria Restaurante is part of Downtown Bethesda’s forest of old-growth Italian Restaurants1. La Panetteria’s Italian and Argentinian-influenced menu reflects its founder’s roots, giving the restaurant a unique twist. Co-owners and long-time friends, Executive Chef Hector “Ettore” Playuk is from Sicily, and General Manager Fernando Martinez is from Buenos Aires. In 2024, Playuk became the sole owner.
Aside from its Argentinian twist, La Panetteria has plenty to offer its loyal customers. Although the restaurant’s old-world interior doesn’t resemble a bake shop – a panetteria, it’s a comfortable, homey space to enjoy hearty Italian-Argentinian fare. The restaurant doesn’t bill itself as a pizzeria. DishingPizza has enjoyed dining at La Paneterria, unaware that pizza was on the menu.
La Panetteria’s pizza hews to what one might expect from an Italian bakery. The soft, light, bready crust is wondrous and unique. Although this pizza is closest to New York-style, its crust lacks the firmness one typically expects from steel-deck ovens. From a pure-crust perspective, La Panetteria pizza is like Roman pizza. DishingPizza expected this delicate crust to reheat badly and was pleasantly surprised that it retained its structure for days without sogginess.
If only the pizza were about the crust alone. Alas, it takes cheese and sauce, at a minimum, to complete the picture. Unfortunately, the La Panetteria cheese is lacking — it’s not especially oily, but it is salty. The mild sauce is a bit player in this pizza, applied so lightly that it’s barely noticeable. Hoping to discover an untapped vein of pizza excellence, DishingPizza is disappointed to report that La Panetteria is merely good.
None of the old-growth Bethesda Italian restaurants, including La Panetteria, touts its pizza. DishingPizza is more forgiving of restaurants with so-so pizza that don’t specialize in pizza-making. Still, La Panetteria’s pizza has an appealing uniqueness, and that’s a rarity in this MeToo land of wood-fired Neapolitan pizza.
Rich Italian food remains a mainstay of American dining, carbs and calories be damned. Hence, after all these years, health-conscious Bethesda customers still flock to La Panetteria and the handful of its local competitors. While it’s ill-advised to have pizza as a main course at La Panetteria, DishingPizza heartily approves of ordering it as an appetizer.
La Panetteria Restaurante
4921 Cordell Ave, Bethesda, MD 20814
Style: New York-ish, Roman-ish
Pizza Quality: 🍕🍕
Overall experience: ⭐⭐⭐
Pie (14″): $21.00
Price per square inch: $0.14
- The 20th-century Bethesda Italian restaurants also include Pines of Rome (1972), Trattoria Sorrento (1991), and the deceased Positano Ristorante Italiano (1977-2017). Newcomers include Olazzo (2002) and Pizzeria da Marco (2011). ↩︎